A Dolphin Welcomes Us Back to the Jumentos

We spent an enjoyable evening at Deshemon's Restaurant eating our old favourite, conch pizza. Simon and Dianne run a small restaurant in Black Point with a nice patio and a free internet signal. It is popular with the cruisers. I sent off my last update and called my mom as I knew it would be awhile before I would have internet again.


The next morning we left at dawn for our motorsail to Coakley Island. We had our first dolphin come to play in our bow wave and it is always such a joyful sight. After ten hours and about 50 miles we anchored safely in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The sunset picture was taken the evening at Coakley. Coakley offers some protection out on the banks and allows us to get within sailing distance of the Jumentos. Wenesday January 12th will see us sailing about 35 miles to Flamingo Cay dodging coral heads a good part of the way. We will seek shelter at Flamingo Cay for the next 3 days as the wind is to blow 20-25-30 knots and squalls are expected. Gratefully the wind is from the north and east and we can get good shelter at Flamingo.


It is now the third day we have been hunkered down in Flamingo Cay. We are getting good shelter from the wind; however the surge here, like many of the anchorages in the Jumentos can be pretty ugly at times. Surge is the term for the waves that refract around the islands and end up rolling into the anchorage. These waves start the boat rolling and just like a child on a swing we continue to roll after being pushed. This is the motion that we hate the most and we call it the death roll. The first day we put out a stern anchor to try and keep Celebrian from lying in the trough of the waves. It has worked quite well and now we are doing a motion we call cork screwing and it is not nearly as bad as death rolling. The first night Rob slept in the salon so that I could sleep across the berth and not feel like I might roll out of bed. Picture lying in bed and rolling from side to side without any control and that is how our first night felt. Sleeping while moving is definitel a cruising skill. Lynn and Peter will be glad that they decided to stay in Long Island for this front.

The remora or shark suckers that are attached to Celebrian's keel think that she is a big shark. They use a suction cup action with the top of their heads and attach themselves to sharks, turtles or in our case Celebrian's keel. They eat the cast offs of their host;however they didn't think too much of the cabbage leaves we tossed overboard. They must be getting quite hungry. They are obviously not the brightest of fish.

Yesterday we managed to get ashore for a walk and a break from the boat. We are hoping to do the same this afternoon. Tomorrow the wind is dropping enough to allow us to head further down the chain of islands. Gratefully the forecast is for some settled weather so we are hopeful of getting diving and kayaking. The water temperature is about 23 degrees C / mid 70s F. That is an improvement from The Exumas of a couple of degrees and it makes a big difference when you are in the water for a period of time.